Quaker Burial Grounds

in Bristol and Frenchay Monthly Meeting

Gwynne Stock

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Introduction

This paper represents part of a larger study for a Post Graduate Research Diploma, (Stock, unpublished research dissertation (1997)); other aspects of which are in Stock, (1998, a), concerning Quaker burial doctrine and practice; and Stock, (1998, b), describing the watching brief during the clearance of the Quaker burial ground in the parish of Bathford (Bath & North East Somerset) ahead of the construction of the Batheaston Bypass. Finally, Stock (1998, c): A Survey of Quaker Burial Grounds in Bristol and Frenchay Monthly Meeting.

The above papers contain burial ground plans and are fully referenced; they must be consulted if material is to be cited for publication.

There are more than 550 Quaker burial ground sites in England and Wales. However, findings have shown that although details of some of the burial grounds have been published, most have been treated as an incidental part of, or associated with, a meeting house (the Quaker equivalent of a church), rather than an item of study on their own. Until recently, little inquiry has been undertaken, other than the recording of information that is mainly historical, genealogical or anecdotal.

Quakers, a name given to members of the Religious Society of Friends believe that all ground is 'God's ground' and special consecrated ground is unnecessary, thus any convenient piece of land is acceptable for burial. Quakers wanted nothing to do with the Established Church, so a variety of pieces of land, in a variety of locations, were acquired by gift or purchase, and pressed into use by the urgent need for a place of burial. In 1717 the Quaker use of gravestones was advised, until 1850, when they were permitted, provided that:

. . . in each particular burial ground, such uniformity is preserved in respect to the materials, size, form and wording of the stones, as well as in the mode of placing them, as may effectually guard against any distinction being made in that place between the rich and the poor.

Twelve burial ground sites in Bristol and Frenchay Monthly Meeting are examined here. The dates in use for burial, in some, ranged from the mid 17th century to the present; others have been exhumed and developed. All have some surviving records, while further information has been gleaned by seeking physical evidence, in order to find answers to the following questions:

• Where are the burial grounds?
• What is the origin of the individual burial ground?
• What is the visual evidence?
• Does the burial practice follow Quaker expectations?

The eleven sites identified comprise: Brislington, Chipping Sodbury, Downend, Frenchay, Kingsweston, Lower Hazel, Portishead, Quakers Friars, Redcliff Pit, Thornbury and Workhouse. Other than Downend, they were also included in Reports on Burial Grounds (1843). Table 1 lists their topographical characteristics.

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The Sites

Brislington NGR ST 2520 7013

Brislington Quaker burial ground, formerly in North Division of Somerset Monthly Meeting, dates from c. 1691, and according to a Deed of 13th November 1731 there were:

. . . re-leases and grants for the term of 970 years [for] all that plot of Walled Ground then and for the space of forty years and upwards [that] hath been used as a burying place.

The burial ground was sold in 1836 to Dr Francis Fox MD for the use of his local lunatic asylum on condition that:

. . . it shall be kept in good order and repair as a Private Burial Ground, and that Dr Fox shall enter into a covenant to allow Burial there to Members of the Society of Friends should further occasion arise.

No information of further ownership changes has been sought. The site survives with inhumations, but no visible memorial stones or boundary wall, other than a short section of retaining wall at the north west end. The ill-defined area of grass, scrub, concrete and rubbish in a largely derelict industrial estate in South Bristol and is within an area subject to re-development, but is not thought to be under serious threat.

Chipping Sodbury NGR ST 7256 8231

The purchase date of the meeting house and burial ground is recorded as 1692,

Down a lane on the north side of Brook Street Hill.

A house was built on the southern end of the plot in 1976/7, and a note in the planning application file concerns the discovery during foundation work in the south east corner of the site of

a number of fragments of bone and a skull; also a brick-lined grave with capping stones, containing human bones.

The same note mentions 'a pile of tombstones at the lower [north] end of the plot', the latest date observed being 1920. Prior to the development, there had been a shed in the south west corner and it was conjectured that this part of the plot, which is immediately to the north of the former Meeting House, could have been in use for stabling rather than for burial. The garden now contains some memorial stones, not in the original position, but no further human remains have been disturbed and they are not under threat.

Downend NGR ST 6514 7816

Downend Quaker burial ground dates from 1657, and the Reverend Arthur Emlyn Jones (1899) wrote:

Another interesting relic of bygone days stands in the middle of Cleeve Hill Farm, lying between Bromley Heath and Baugh's Farm. It is a small square space walled all the way round, and now planted with fir trees. In the east wall near the entrance gate is a stone tablet with this inscription:

'FRIENDS' BURIAL GROUND. 1657. 750 interments prior to the year 1800, were registered at Cirencester. The entrance is upon a piece of pasture through roads from Bromley Heath to near Bath Farm, from the great road from Downend to Coalpit Heath.

The text of the surviving plaque (below), now located at Moorend Farm (NGR ST 6515 7819), differs slightly from the printed transcription 1899 (above). Note also that Baugh's Farm and Bath Farm are phonetically similar and that Baugh and not Bath appears on maps.

A housing development planning application in showed the burial ground as an open space surrounded by building plots, and with apparent access from the road in the north east corner. Three plots, originally to the east, are shown on later Ordnance Survey maps, encroaching into the burial ground area. Two, larger houses, have since been built on the area shown as three, and presumably have gardens bisecting the burial ground. No planning conditions were found regarding human remains, and until established to the contrary, it must be assumed that the burials are in situ.

Frenchay NGR ST 6408 7799

The land use as a Meeting House and Burial Ground is recorded in a Deed dated 15th May 1673. The same document describes the property thus:

Frenchay Meeting House and Burial Ground at the north east end of Frenchay Common, in the Parish of Winterbourne, are commodious, and in good order. There are attached to these premises ample stable accommodation, a Cottage in the Graveyard, and a tenement (over one Stable), which are occupied by persons having care of the Meeting Premises.

The flat memorial tablets were re-located in 1950 and arranged vertically around a grassed area, in front of flower borders which had their origin in 1738, when it was agreed that:

...flower borders 18 inches (0.45 m) wide should be made round the graveyard and sowed with some sort of garden herbs.

The burial ground is still in use, but restricted for inhumation and the burial of cremated remains of members of Frenchay Preparative Meeting. Mortared stone walls varying in height from 1.8 to 2.8 metres enclose the burial ground on three sides with access through a passage in the meeting house on the fourth side. A plan dated 1927 shows a general south-west / north-east burial axis with some infill at right angles.

Kingsweston NGR ST 5401 7796

Kingsweston burial ground dates from 1690 and this date is repeated on an incised stone above the entrance: 'FRIENDS BURIAL GROUND 1690'. It survives as a strip of land enclosed by a Listed mortared rubble wall, with an 18th century gateway. The location, on the corner of Kingsweston Lane and Broadlands Drive, is within an extensive post-World War 2 housing estate in Lawrence Weston, north Bristol. More than eighty, flat rectangular memorial tablets, lie in attractive grass, shrub and tree surroundings, which an urban fox has also made its home. A number of stones have become covered with vegetation, and there are probably others. The burial ground is still available for interment. There appear to be six rows of graves, with an axis north-west / south-east, but the head / foot axis is not apparent because the stones, where present, are aligned along the length of the grave, with the inscriptions as viewed from the entrance.

Lower Hazel NGR ST 6261 8746

A Deed is dated 1674, while a stone in the wall by the entrance shows the date 1656. Lower Hazel, in the parish of Olveston, is a very attractive and secluded rural burial ground, entered through a pair of doors near the south corner. A mortared rubble boundary wall, some of which is squared and coursed, ranges in height from 1.5 to 2.2 metres. A sundial on a stone plinth is a central feature of a grassed area surrounded by trees and shrubs. Of the fifty-seven stones found, forty-six were headstones with semicircular tops and eleven were small (0.3 m) square tablets laid horizontally. The stump of a Wellingtonia tree (Sequoiadendron giganteum) planted at the turn of the 20th century (tree-ring data) remains a prominent feature. A headstone with the inscription: 'Hephzibah Knight Eaton 4[th] mo[nth] 22 1871 aged 4 years' and 'Winifride Knight Eaton 9 mo 29 1871 aged 2 years 5 mo' marks the possible position of a grave encroached upon by the tree. Three rectilinear depressions in the south east quarter, show the locations of the three coffins containing the skeletal remains of about one hundred interments exhumed from Thornbury Quaker burial ground in 1981. Lower Hazel burial ground is still in use.

Portishead NGR ST 4655 7552

Portishead was successively within North Division of Somerset Monthly Meeting, North Somerset and Wilts Monthly Meeting, and then transferred to Bristol and Frenchay Monthly Meeting in 1893. A Deed dated 17 April 1669 records:

[Lands?] Adjoining the road leading from Portishead to Clevedon, were given to Friends, 1669, by WILLIAM POWELL, for the purposes of a Meeting House and Burial Ground (sic).

Kenneth H Southall writes, without citation:

It is recorded that in 1668 'one little meed or parcel of ground' was given to Portishead Meeting by William Prowse of Compton Bishop, at one end of which stood a house occupied by Thomas Hodds. This is the present Burial Ground, and the cottage which became the Meeting House. A copy of another deed of 1669 records [above], in rather ambiguous wording, a gift of ground by William Powell, which may have been adjacent to the Meeting House' (Southall 1974, 8-9).

The burial ground is now in the curtilage of a Listed thatched meeting house, but is not specifically mentioned. A grassed area within herb and shrub borders has 73 rectangular tablets, laid horizontally. A small broken headstone inscribed: 'W H 1687' has been placed in the meeting house. A William Hunt of Fayland [Failand?] was buried 10 8 1687. A single storey, separate meeting-room, planned and built between 1972 and 1974, encroaches on part of the burial ground, and a 'ha-ha' type wall protected by an evergreen hedge forms the boundary with St Mary's Road. Cremated remains only are now interred.

Quakers Friars NGR ST 5930 7332

A deed dated 7th and 8th Feb. 1669, describes a 'Meeting House, Burial Ground, and Premises at the Friars' as:

Occupying part of the site of the ancient monastery of the Black Friars (who used the present Burial Ground) situate between Rosemary Street and the Broad Weir, from each side of which there is an entrance. Were first acquired by purchase 1669.

February in 1669 was the eleventh month in the Julian calendar, and that date has presumably since been converted to the Gregorian calendar as the second month 1670 which is the date inscribed on the oval plaque below. The former Meeting House was sold in 1956 and became Bristol Register Office, and the burial ground was exhumed and became largely used for car parking. The human remains were reinterred in Avon View Cemetery, Bristol in grave numbers 1359 and 1448 Purple AA, 27 October 1956. A vertical oval plaque now states:

[Bristol Coat of Arms]

Society of Friends Meeting House 1747

The Quakers held Meetings on this site from 1670 - 1956

Some 500 of the gravestones have been re-used as a surface for the car parking area at Bedminster Meeting House, Wedmore Vale, Bristol. (NGR: ST 592 707).

Redcliff Pit NGR ST 5903 7236

Redcliff Pit was purchased freehold in 1665, and had an entrance from Jones's Lane, Redcliff St. The site, now a public garden with paths, raised plant beds and a grassed area is identified as a former Quaker burial ground by a stone and a metal plate on the wall by the entrance. The flaking stone reads:

FRIENDS BURIAL GROUND 1665

and the metal plate:

THIS LAND PURCHASED IN 1665 BY QUAKERS AND USED BY THEM AS A BURIAL GROUND UNTIL 1923. WAS GIVEN TO THE CITIZENS OF BRISTOL IN 1950

The human remains were exhumed and reinterred in Avon View Cemetery 14 September 1956, in grave numbers 1357-8 and 1449-50 Purple AA. A number of rectangular memorial stones are stored in St John the Baptist, a small cave or grotto in the rock at the south end. According to a pencil note in the margin of a plan of the burial, lead coffins were seen in 1936 during the laying of a large water main through the northern end of Redcliff Pit.

Thornbury NGR ST 6380 9009

Meeting House and Burial Ground: On the south east side of [Saint] John Street, in the Town of Thornbury, acquired by purchase on lease for 1000 years from 25th April 1674, and release in fee 26th and 27th April 1677, for the sum of Twelve pounds Ten shillings. The human skeletal remains were exhumed from the former 81 St John Street and re-interred in Lower Hazel burial ground in 1981, to clear the area for development.

Workhouse NGR ST 5963 7343

The 'Workhouse' in this instance, was literally a place of work, established in 1696 as a positive response to a need to provide work for poor unemployed Quaker weavers, who eventually returned a profit. A Deed dated 29th of September 1698 and gives the following information:

The Burial Ground (Workhouse) New Street, with entrances from New Street and River Street in the Parish of St. Philip and Jacob, in the City of Bristol, was acquired by purchase in 1698, but has never been very extensively used. The Ground was purchased in connection with the premises formerly known as the Workhouse.

Other names used in the past include New Street, New Street Mission and River Street. The gravestones were removed in 1932, with the consent of the available relations, and arranged in the north-east corner of the yard. The human remains were exhumed and were reinterred in Avon View Cemetery in grave numbers 1453-4 Purple AA, 15 February. A meeting house, renamed Friars, and now known as Central Bristol (Friars), was built over part of the former burial ground in 1970. Spaced cast-iron numbered plates which had been used to form a grid to identify grave positions, survive on the north west wall of the garden at the back of the meeting house. A memorial stone facing south in Avon View cemetery (NGR: ST 6180 7329) bears the words:

IN THIS COMMON GRAVE ARE BURIED THE REMAINS OF THOSE MEMBERS OF THE SOCIETY OF FRIENDS. (QUAKERS) FORMERLY INTERRED IN THE QUAKER BURIAL GROUNDS AT NEW STREET, QUAKERS FRIARS AND REDCLIFF PIT. RE-INTERRED HERE IN 1956 AT THE TIME OF THE RE-BUILDING OF THESE PARTS OF BRISTOL.

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Conclusion

The areas of the surviving burial grounds are substantially as recorded in 1843, and thus show that the boundaries are likely to be of at least of that date. The early maps support that finding. The axis of burial appears to depend upon an efficient use of the available space and would only by chance adhere to the 'liturgical alignment' of east to west, with head west, as is usual with the Established Church. Gravestones, many of which are dated between the years 1717 and 1850 when stones were advised against, are simple but not entirely uniform. Inscriptions sometimes include named rather than numbered months. Lead coffins and walled graves can often be found in Quaker burial grounds, demonstrating that not all conformed to the advocated simplicity.

Table 1 - Topographical Summary

Bibliography

Stock, G. (1997). Unpublished Post Graduate Research Diploma Dissertation: An Evaluation of Quaker Burial Practices. Bournemouth University. [Copies in: Bristol Record Office; Friends House Library, Euston Rd., London; Gloucestershire Record Office; Public Record Office, Kew; and University of the West of England.]

Stock, G. (1998, a) Quaker Burial: Doctrine and Practice. In M. Cox (editor). Grave Concerns: Death and Burial in Post Medieval England 1700 -1850. York: Council for British Archaeology.

Stock, G. (1998, b). The 18th and Early 19th Century Quaker Burial Ground at Bathford, Bath and North East Somerset. In M. Cox (editor). Grave Concerns: Death and Burial in Post Medieval England 1700 -1850. York: Council for British Archaeology.

Stock, G. (1998c). A Survey of Quaker Burial Grounds in Bristol and Frenchay Monthly Meeting. Bristol & Avon Archaeology Volume 13. 1996, pp 1-9 [BAA was published in 1998, but has no printed 'publication date'].

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